[Buddha-l] Making a living

[Curt Steinmetz]

This has never been a problem for Buddhism in the past. Buddhism in Asia 
has always flourished among the "middle classes" on up to the very 
wealthy and the very powerful. I believe the oldest extant text of the 
Record of Lin Chi has a forward written by someone who was basically a 
warlord.

If anything there is a "glass ceiling" for the Buddhist upper crust in 
the West. We have actors and college professors and musicians - but no 
one who has the ear of the President - that's left for the likes of 
Billy Graham. And there is very very little in the way of financial 
support for Buddhism in the West - at least in terms of the kind of 
financial support that has helped Buddhism to spread in Asia.

Curt Steinmetz

David Webster wrote:
> MMMmmm.
>
> In the UK, one of the off-putting things about many forms of Buddhism is the
> apparent gap between claims about non-attachment and the dangers of material
> greed, and the middle-class comfortableness of a very significant proportion
> of Buddhists. 
>
> Add to that the celebrity Buddhist phenomena, the over-priced
> Buddha-statue-as-lifestyle accessory and you can see why some see Buddhism
> in the West as a naff, smug, 'holier'-than-thou form of cultural tourism and
> self-indulgence (like much of the New-Age mullarkey)
>
> Not that I think that myself - but it is a genuine danger to the wider
> understanding Buddhism - and to its practice.
>
> Maybe.
>
> d.
> ---------------------------------------- 
> Dr David Webster 
> Course Leader: Religion, Philosophy & Ethics 
> University of Gloucestershire 
>
> 01242 71 4778 
> e-mail: dwebster at glos.ac.uk 
>
>
> University Site: http://www.glos.ac.uk
>
>  
>
> Course blog: http://www.r-p-e.blogspot.com  
> ---------------------------------------- 
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